Our Journey Begins

One of the most joyous moments of my life was the moment our first daughter was born. She was perfect in every single way. For the sake of her privacy I will be referring to her as Bub throughout this blog. During our stay in the hospital we all noticed her little skin flakes on her hands and feet. All the midwives and our Dr all assured me it was just because she was a little overdue. I am sure this is the case for many babies but i always think back to those first few days and wonder if it was a sign of things to come.

Like many parents we took our precious girl to have some new born photos taken at around 2 weeks of age. On the way we made a stop at the local chemist so daddy could make a quick run in and grab some moisturizer suitable for a tiny baby. Her face was quite flaky by this time and we wanted something to smooth it for our photos.

                                                    Bub's flaky foot from the photo shoot.

For a while her skin was fine, but sometime in the following months she started to develop little dry patches on her shoulder blades and from there it just got progressively worse. Before she was even able to walk she had mastered the art of scratching her back on the floor.

My first stop was a Naturopath who suggested we change her formula to goats milk and gave me a huge long list of different foods to cut out. Everything from eggs, dairy, gluten and a number of different fruit and vegetables. We swapped her formula and changed her diet but saw no improvement.

We got into a bit of a routine to try and sooth the itchy monster that was attacking our daughter. I can't begin to imagine the amount of money we spent on "eczema" creams that all did nothing. One night after she had had her shower daddy was applying a new cream that came highly recommended. With in seconds of putting it on her her skin became red and she started to scream, luckily quick thinking daddy threw her straight back in the shower with me or i fear the cream may have burnt her skin right off. From that day i have ALWAYS patch tested any creams/lotions  we use and have been reluctant to try new ones.

I took Bub to numerous different doctors in the hope of a referral to a dermatologist. All of them said oh just try this cream first and gave me a prescription for a form of cortisone/steroid cream. The thing is the steroid creams worked but the itchy eczema always came back with vengeance. The worst of her eczema came when she was around 18 months old. I decided to try another doctor I was told had an interest in dermatology. I left the appointment in tears. He pretty much accused me of neglecting my child. He didn't listen to a word I said and talked over me the whole appointment but i thought he was a godsend as with my tears I left with the referral to a dermatologist I had so desperately wanted.